As ISIS struggles to collect the shattered pieces of its crumbling existence, the terror group continues to seize every opportunity to remain relevant and prolong its inevitable perish. Amidst the coronavirus pandemic currently sweeping the world, ISIS is exploiting the deadly disease to brainwash vulnerable minds in hopes of converting and recruiting new members.
According to an anti-terrorism expert, ISIS is handing out soap in refugee camps, saying that the coronavirus is a punishment of God for unbelievers and telling refugees that whoever follows the sharia will not get infected. ISIS is also closely following the spread of the coronavirus and using their online publications to post analyses, threats, and even sanitary guidelines. One post on Telegram even gloated over the health restrictions across the world by saying, “They used to mock women wearing the Islamic niqab, now they are doing the same. We ridicule you like you ridiculed us.”
Abu Muhammad al Maqdisi, the prominent Jordan-based sheikh and spiritual mentor of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the man who founded the al Qaeda offshoot that would later become ISIS, posted a series of messages on Telegram about the pandemic’s “hidden benefits” for Muslim societies. These include the closing of bars and nightclubs, and that more women are covering their faces with niqabs to protect from the virus. Most recently he added, “There is nothing wrong with a Muslim praying for the deaths of infidels and wishing that they contract coronavirus.”
